For a decent indication of the machismo coursing through the veins of Ben Stokes, take his answer to a hypothetical question posed before the second Test against Pakistan that starts in smoggy Multan on Friday.
The scenario was this: were his England team to find themselves nine wickets down going into the final over of a Test match, with 20 runs needed to win but Jimmy Anderson on strike, would the captain still want his No 11 to go for the win? “Yes,” came the one-word reply from Stokes, his eyes betraying no sense of mischief as he sat in the courtyard of the fortress-like team hotel in central Punjab, the sounds of a military helicopter and police sirens blaring from beyond its barbed-wired walls.
As seismic as England’s 74-run win in Rawalpindi felt, there is a legitimate debate to be had as to whether the best way to breathe new life into Test cricket – a higher cause Stokes and the head coach, Brendon McCullum, are espousing – is to tell the audience that draws are undesirable and results don’t matter.
But certainly at present, seven wins from their last eight Tests, and their style of cricket setting tongues wagging across the cricket-verse, there is little doubt that this has clearly proved liberating for a set of players so constricted previously. One theory Stokes has is that the new generation can only ever play to win in white-ball cricket.
It may also be that “Bazball” – a phrase England don’t like – comes from the liberation of two leaders whose legacies are already secured, Stokes having scaled the twins peaks of Lord’s and Headingley in 2019 – plus the recent T20 World Cup triumph – and McCullum, an outsider who will forever be a great New Zealand captain.
Stokes says: “There’s no self-preservation in our roles: him keeping his job as England coach, me keeping my job as England captain. It’s all the bigger picture. So when you’ve got two blokes leading the charge with exactly the same mindset around that then it makes doing what we’re doing out on the field a lot easier.”
Asked if other teams may now follow suit, Stokes says: “I feel I’ve been quite vocal about the bigger picture. If some teams get on board with that, and understand the philosophy we’re trying to bring to Test cricket, then great.
“But if they continue to play in the way in which they want to play, that’s absolutely fine as well. We’ll stick to our guns and that’s to go out there and try to make every single day of Test cricket entertaining and force results – not worry about too much else.”
Another question was whether Stokes felt this way while operating as vice-captain to Joe Root. “Yes,” he says. “It wasn’t a case of as soon as I got the job [I thought] to do it this way. But whilst Joe was in charge it was Joe’s team.” Did he ever speak up? “I’ve always tried to get across ‘remember what we’re doing, walking out for England with three lions on our chest, have as much fun as we possibly can while we’re doing it, because in the click of a finger it could all be gone’. But in terms of all the other messaging and the language that we speak, no, I don’t think so.”
The mantra could be challenged even further with the decision to stage the second Test in Multan – its pollution levels are “very unhealthy” at this time of year – looking curious. Both teams rested after arriving late on Tuesday but at 9.30am that morning, the cricket stadium was under a blanket of fog; if not a pea-souper, then a daal-duvet, perhaps.
Local reports suggest Pakistan’s captain, Babar Azam, who was in the barbers while Stokes spoke, wants a spinning pitch, but then he did for the first Test, too. Not knowing what surface would eventuate, and aware that delayed starts could see a Test of “300-350” overs, Stokes broke from his usual approach of naming an XI early.
Liam Livingstone is the one guaranteed absence after flying home injured, while Mark Wood’s return to full fitness brings him into contention, not least given the way Babar and his top-order struggled to cope with a bumper barrage on day four in Rawalpindi. As Stokes noted, it would add an extra 10mph to the equation.
Pakistan (probable): Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Azhar Ali, Babar Azam (capt), Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wkt), Agha Salman, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Ali.
England (confirmed): Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (wkt), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (capt), Will Jacks, Mark Wood, Ollie Robinson, Jack Leach, Jimmy Anderson
That Stokes wouldn’t commit to a return for Ben Foakes 48 hours out, the Surrey man fit again after a sickness bug saw Ollie Pope keep wicket, was also eyebrow raising. The injured Jonny Bairstow, having watched from home as his understudy, Harry Brook, scorched scores of 153 and 87, may well be doing a Roger Moore impression at this.
But whatever the team picked, and however short the days, the messaging England’s players will take with them on to the field in Multan is now a certainty.
